The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  The magnificence of the magic wasn’t what everyone was impressed by, however. The woman stood motionless and defenseless as a dozen men rushed the dragon. All of the men fought valiantly, like the warriors my father told me about. As I watched, I found myself rooting for the dragon over the men. This was the first time anything ever enraptured my complete attention, and I forgot where I was. When the men were defeated, the dragon held out his paw to the woman. She calmly strode onto his paw and he lowered it slowly to the ground. Once she stepped onto solid ground, she took off her blindfold. The dragon disintegrated.

  “Thank you, everyone, for watching this demonstration. As you can see, I am a new kind of dragon trainer. Our trainers are few in numbers, for it takes years to train them. We can each create and control a dragon to protect our clients. We put our clients’ safety first. As we stated before the show, we are now accepting a limited number of clients. Everyone interested in being a client and everyone interested in being a dragon trainer should stick around. Everyone else, we appreciate your interest and we will be back next year with even more trainers.”

  “What are you doing in the aisle?” A hand grabbed my arm to keep me from running and I twisted around to see a large man standing right behind me.

  “I… I want to be one of the dragon trainers.”

  “You’re too young. Where are your parents?” He started dragging me towards a dark space under the stands.

  I had a very bad feeling about that. I tried to reach the knife in my boot, but the man had too tight a grip. I knew if I yelled, I would get in worse trouble. When I tried to bite his hand, he smacked me.

  “Stop that. A boy your age alone in a place like this is asking for trouble. Are you a runaway?”

  “No! My brothers are right outside!”

  He scoffed. “Little wizards should know better.”

  “I’m not a wizard! I’m a sorcerer!”

  “Little wizards shouldn’t lie.” At that point, he shoved me into the dark space and blocked my escape before letting me go.

  Despite knowing I was going to get in worse trouble, I yelled as loud as I could. It was drowned out by an explosion. Before I realized what was happening, the man was out of the way and Bevras was reaching in. I ran out and found Zeus standing over the whimpering man with his wand pointed at the man’s throat.

  “You have angered the Dracre family.”

  “I didn’t know he was a sorcerer!” The man didn’t get the chance to say anything else.

  Black magic shot from Zeus’s wand and transformed the man into a large rat. He had to squirm his way out of the pile of clothes. “Fifty years as a rat should teach you to think before you act.”

  When the rat scurried away, my brothers turned to me, crossed their arms, and glared. “Now it’s time for your punishment,” Bevras said.

  “I couldn’t do anything!”

  “He wouldn’t have threatened you if you had black hair.”

  “That’s not my fault!”

  “Of course it’s your fault! You cause this family nothing but trouble.” I expected to be turned into something worse than a rat, but instead, he just grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the tent. Although it was already sore from the big man pulling me around, I didn’t dare complain.

  Instead of dragging me back towards the inn, he took me further into town. “Where are we going?”

  “If you’re not going to act like part of this family, you’re not going to be treated like part of it.” He let me go and waved his wand again. A stake appeared right in front of me.

  “Not again,” I moaned. Black chains appeared out of his wand, bound me, and slammed me into the poll before snaking around it a few times to secure me. “You can’t leave me here forever.”

  “No, but I will leave you here until the tournament is over in three days. If you beg, someone might feed you.” With that, he and Bevras left me.

  Without anything to do, I was sure I would go crazy. Even though there were all kinds of colors, sounds, and smells around, I couldn’t explore them. Before long, a man offered to untie me, but I warned him the chains were cursed and he would turn to stone if he tried. Needless to say, he didn’t offer again.

  By nightfall, I was bored, thirsty, hungry, and achy. When people started closing up their tents, I lost hope of getting some food. Honestly, I just wanted someone to chat with me for a while. Late into the night, I couldn’t sleep because I was too thirsty. Still, I closed my eyes in a feeble attempt.

  When I felt a light touch on my shoulders, I jerked back as far as I could, which wasn’t much. A beautiful woman was standing there with long white hair and deep blue eyes. She wore a silver robe. “Are you a witch?”

  “No.” She held up a cup of water and helped me drink it. It never occurred to me to mistrust her because she looked trustworthy. The only time looks were deceiving were when magicians changed their appearance.

  “You’re not a magician, are you?”

  “No. My name is Desandra Lenore. You can call me Dessa. I’m a seer.”

  “Really? You can see the future?”

  “I see what I need to see.”

  Chapter 4

  “Wake up, Ayden.”

  “Go away. I’m tired.”

  “We have a lot of traveling to do today.”

  “Later.” Before I could fall back to sleep, I felt Merlin’s mouth close around my left foot. Fortunately, there was a blanket between my skin and his sharp fangs, or it would have hurt. I tried to grab for something, but the wolf was already pulling me off the bed before I could grip anything.

  I couldn’t go back to sleep after that, so we went down to the kitchen for breakfast. Once again, I had no appetite when Hamland offered me potatoes and bread, only to realize I was really hungry when his mother offered me and Merlin leftover roast. Since I couldn’t conjure meat, I wasn’t normally much of a meat eater. Merlin, however, explained that protein was helpful in maintaining my energy.

  After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and I promised that if we figured out what happened to his aunt’s magic, we would return. Kirin was waiting for me when we got outside.

  * * *

  Every time we stopped for a break, I felt like something was watching us. Merlin agreed that there was something there, though he didn’t believe it was sinister. Other than that, the day was uneventful. That night, I slept uneasily. When he thought I was asleep, Merlin howled to the moons as if he was trying to purge his sorrow.

  In the morning, I went without eating again and we started out early. Kirin refused to go faster than a leisurely trot. Merlin told me to trust the unicorn, since neither of us knew the area. Eventually, we came to a small cabin in the middle of the forest. I told Kirin to go around, but instead he went right up to the front door and stamped his hoof.

  “It might be someone who needs help,” Merlin suggested.

  I pulled the hood and mask up, got down from Kirin, and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I tried to mount Kirin again, but he backed away so I couldn’t. “What’s wrong?” I asked. Of course, the unicorn didn’t answer.

  I knocked again, and this time, an aggrieved voice yelled through the door, “Go away!” There was no mistaking the pain in his voice, so I opened the door. It was dark and messy inside. The window was closed, the table was overturned, and there were broken potion bottles on the floor. Lying on the bed was an old man.

  “I smell blood,” Merlin said. I approached the man cautiously and sensed very powerful magic. It was wizardry.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Please go away. I don’t have the strength to fend off a sorcerer.” He sounded very weak.

  I lowered my hood and mask, not that it did much good when he wasn’t looking at me. “I’m not a sorcerer.”

  “You can’t fool me; I sense your dark magic.”

  “I was born a sorcerer, but I don’t do dark magic. I’m a curse breaker now.”

  After a moment of hesitation, he sighed, possibly
with relief. “You’re one of the Sjau.”

  “One of the what?”

  “That is what the dragons call you. You are the seventh son of the seventh son? I’ve met a Sjau before. He had only light magic, though, and you seem to have a fair amount of dark magic.”

  “I have dark magic? No way. I only do light magic. I try to help people.”

  “Then you will help me?”

  “I’ll do as much as I can, but I can’t heal. How badly are you hurt?”

  He slowly lowered the blood-soaked blanket. His shirt had a big hole in it, which told me he had been bed-ridden since his injury. “I was stabbed by an assassin. Unfortunately, he was a terrible assassin and accidentally left me alive. I have been in pain for so long.”

  “Even though only mages can do healing magic here, there are healing potions and medicinal herbs.”

  “But only mages know how to make them,” I told Merlin in his mind. “Why didn’t you go to a mage or get a potion?” I asked.

  “I haven’t had the strength.”

  “Kirin!” I called. The unicorn poked his head in through the door. “Can you heal this wizard’s wound?” The unicorn nodded, but didn’t enter. “If you can come outside, he’ll heal you.”

  “I can’t even stand up.”

  I stepped outside, grabbed my wand from the saddle bag, and went back in. Levitate, I thought to the wand. As usual, my wand did exactly what I wanted it to, but in an obscenely pretty fashion. Glittery white sparkles showered from it and the wizard lifted. His blanket dangled over his feet and his arms flayed for anything to steady himself with. Almost instantly, I felt a small ache in my chest.

  The wizard uttered sounds of surprise as he drifted over to the unicorn still waiting at the door. I focused my magic to set him down as gently as I could in front of Kirin. As soon as I did, Kirin started licking the wizard’s wound. His silver horn began glowing much like the sparkles from my wand. Right in front of my eyes, the gory stab wound in the wizard’s stomach healed.

  After a moment, Kirin stepped back as the wizard stood and examined himself. “That was amazing. I was close to death and you saved my life. Thank you, Sjau.”

  “Kirin was the one who saved you, not me.”

  “He would not have been able to save me without you, so thank you.” He stroked the unicorn’s mane. “Thank you, too.” The wizard looked at Merlin and frowned. “You’re not from this world.”

  “This is Merlin. He’s a wizard from another world, but he was cursed. I’m trying to break it. Well, right now, we’re trying to find others like me to save them from my mother.”

  “You tell strangers too much, young sorcerer.”

  “Well, you should both be very careful,” the wizard said.

  “You, too. I’ve heard a few people are losing magic south of here.”

  “That’s strange. Is it a curse?”

  “Not on the mage I met. I can’t say for sure about the rest of them.” We left the wizard and started on our path again. Once we were out of sight of the cabin, I stopped Kirin. “I’m sure it’s not anything serious, but something is weird with my magic.”

  Merlin frowned. “How so?”

  “Every time I’ve done magic since leaving Magnus’s castle, my chest hurt. It fades quickly, but it happens every time. Maybe I’m just using more than usual, but I don’t think so.”

  “Perhaps it has something to do with the others who are losing magic.”

  “But my magic is fine.”

  “I have sensed a sort of despondence in you since we left the castle. I had thought it was worry over the others like you, but if your magic is causing pain, I wonder if there is a connection. Otherwise, it is a coincidence, and I find there are rarely coincidences in magic.”

  I mounted Kirin. “I guess unless my magic starts failing, it doesn’t matter. It’s not a crippling pain.”

  “Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. It should not be ignored.”

  I shrugged. “You would be able to sense if something’s wrong with my magic, wouldn’t you?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “Just to be cautious, try not to use your magic except in emergencies.”

  “I need magic to find the rest of the people on the list after Mason. What did the wizard call us?”

  “Sjau.”

  Kirin started galloping quickly again and we didn’t slow down until nightfall.

  * * *

  The next day, we reached a beautiful cabin with flowering trees and the smell of pie wafting out of the windows. Kirin stopped and refused to move another step.

  “It’s a wizard’s cabin.” Many of them lived in castles, but not all. My magic easily detected the light magic of at least a dozen people. “Is this the place?” I asked. The unicorn nodded.

  “There is an abundance of magic in there,” Merlin said.

  I hopped down, slipped my staff into the saddlebag, and started to do the same with my robe before I remembered it didn’t have my Dracre emblem on it. Instead, I pulled out my wand. “If you want to do some embarrassingly pretty magic, now is the time,” I whispered to the wand. Of course, it ignored me.

  Merlin approached the house with me, clearly on high alert, when I froze. Merlin growled. “What is wrong?” he asked.

  I pointed to the problem; right in front of my feet was a line of rainbow flowers, which circled the entire cabin. “They’re protected by fairies.”

  “So? The fairies took the syrus from you without a problem.”

  “That was a completely different situation; I wasn’t threatening their protected mortals.”

  “You are not here to threaten the wizards, either.”

  “Of course not, but I was still born a sorcerer, and fairies hate us. I can’t go any closer. Even my mother wouldn’t dare to cross the fairies. Just knock on the door and I can talk to them from here.” Merlin sighed. He had just started for the door when I felt Kirin’s hoof shoving me hard in the back. I hit the ground and automatically covered my head, expecting to be bombarded with a number of heinous curses from a pack of furious fairies.

  Instead, the door opened. I didn’t move.

  “Mother, there are boys falling from the sky! Come look!”

  I risked a slight peek up at the girl standing in the doorway. She was about fifteen and the perfect example of a witch. Her skin was like porcelain, her long, curly hair was the color of gold, and her eyes were a marbled mixture of light and dark blue. She wore a simple white dress with no shoes, and there was a white flower in her hair.

  She smiled brightly when I sat up. “He’s alive, too!” she yelled over her shoulder.

  “I’m…” Kirin’s shove had knocked the air out of me and I sounded like an idiot. “I’m here to see Mason Minof.” Her smile dropped so fast I felt like I had offended her.

  “All the pretty boys who fall from the sky only want to see my brother. That’s so unfair.” Moping, she turned around and walked into the house. “Mason, there’s another one! I told you to take that flyer down!”

  I used the opportunity to get to my feet and brush the dirt off me. I was inside the circle; the damage was already done, and I knew I was going to pay dearly for it. The fairies must be taking their time to come up with some extra horrible punishment. My mother had told me that her oldest sister, Rocana, crossed a fairy circle and thought she got away with it. Then, when Rocana’s son was born, the fairies took him.

  This time, it was a boy about sixteen who answered the door. I recognized him from the mirror, and he really did have dark red hair and dark green eyes. So we weren’t all the same; while my aunt and I looked like wizards, Mason didn’t look like a sorcerer or a wizard. Although he wasn’t muscular or very tall, he wasn’t scrawny like me, either.

  He smiled as kindly as his sister had. “It took you long enough to get here. Come in. You’re right on time for dinner.”

  I gaped. “You knew I was coming?”

 
; He rolled his eyes. “You have a magic mirror.”

  “How did you know that?”

  Again, he rolled his eyes. “Because I have a magic mirror, too. When you used yours to find me, I saw your face as well and I knew you were coming. I assume you’re looking for answers as to why we are this way?”

  “Huh?”

  He smacked his lips. “Wow, you are uninformed. First of all, we’re called Sjau. There are fourteen of us, and---”

  “Wait.” He did, so I took a breath. “How did you find out about us?”

  “Well, it was pretty obvious I wasn’t born a wizard. I have six brothers and three sisters, all of who spew wizardry with every fiber of their being.”

  “And you don’t?”

  He shrugged. “I can do it, but I’m more of a mage. I’ve also accidentally raised a pet cat after it got trampled by a scared horse. I swore off necromancy after the cat tried to eat my little sister.”

  “I think I am getting a migraine,” Merlin groaned.

  I felt like I was dropped into the middle of a book with no idea what was going on. “And your family accepts you?”

  “Of course! I was born this way and I’m proud of who I am. There are thousands of witches and wizards; there’s only one of me. Come on inside.”

  He stepped back and didn’t say anything about Merlin following me in. As a token of peace, I put my wand away. The house was not as fancy as Magnus’s castle, yet it was not cheap, either. Everything was made well, but there wasn’t anything decorative. All of the mismatched furniture looked exceptionally comfortable. It was a little cluttered with dishes, trinkets, and books, not to mention a surprising number of boots lying around. Strangely, I really liked it.

  “So, I take it by your hesitation that your family members are sorcerers.”

  I nodded. “But I don’t hurt people.”

  “I didn’t think you did. You look like a wizard, even if you were born a sorcerer, which tells me your magic is primarily wizardry.”

  “I thought being a Sjau meant we had neutral magic.”